Does ban on cigarette advertising do any significant effect on cigarette consumption? Apparently not! says the latest research by Michael L. Capella, Charles R. Taylor, and Cynthia Webster titled "The Effect Of Cigarette Advertising Bans On Consumption" [Journal of Advertising, vol. 37, no. 2 (Summer 2008), pp. 7–18]
Till date it was assumed that consumption of tobacco is directly proportional to the advertisement rate. Due to public health implications of smoking and efforts among the public health community to discourage people from smoking, partial or complete elimination of advertising for cigarettes is one widely acceptable approach. The new research by Capella et.al. is a quantitative integration of the entire available published cigarette advertising ban research conducted to determine what impact, if any, advertising bans have on cigarette smoking behavior.
The research is significant as its fact that around 600 million people are suffering from some kind or other adverse effect from tobacco and Tobacco industry claims to contribute billions of dollar to the economy and millions of direct and indirect jobs. The meta research points out that around 40 countries in world put advertising ban in some form or other.
The research results suggest that "both full and partial advertising bans are equally ineffective in reducing consumption. Because advertising bans are found to be nonsignificant with regard to consumption, eliminating cigarette advertising does not appear to be an effective means of reducing smoking, and consequently may not serve its intended purpose. Thus, other mechanisms, such as properly designed antismoking public service announcements and educational programs are likely to be more effective if the goal is to reduce cigarette consumption."
Till date it was assumed that consumption of tobacco is directly proportional to the advertisement rate. Due to public health implications of smoking and efforts among the public health community to discourage people from smoking, partial or complete elimination of advertising for cigarettes is one widely acceptable approach. The new research by Capella et.al. is a quantitative integration of the entire available published cigarette advertising ban research conducted to determine what impact, if any, advertising bans have on cigarette smoking behavior.
The research is significant as its fact that around 600 million people are suffering from some kind or other adverse effect from tobacco and Tobacco industry claims to contribute billions of dollar to the economy and millions of direct and indirect jobs. The meta research points out that around 40 countries in world put advertising ban in some form or other.
The research results suggest that "both full and partial advertising bans are equally ineffective in reducing consumption. Because advertising bans are found to be nonsignificant with regard to consumption, eliminating cigarette advertising does not appear to be an effective means of reducing smoking, and consequently may not serve its intended purpose. Thus, other mechanisms, such as properly designed antismoking public service announcements and educational programs are likely to be more effective if the goal is to reduce cigarette consumption."
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